


You are now KOTONE and it is time for you to SAVE THE WORLD

by Verse



Category: Pocket Monsters: Gold & Silver & Crystal | Pokemon Gold Silver Crystal Versions, pokemon double nuzlocke challenge - Fandom
Genre: Apocalypse, Multi, Ninetales - Freeform, Polyamory, burned tower lore, immortal au, pokemon the movie 2000 lore, shamouti islands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 01:57:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14945462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verse/pseuds/Verse
Summary: "Disturb not the harmony of fire, ice or lightning, lest these titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they clash."Team Rocket obviously didn't get the memo.





	You are now KOTONE and it is time for you to SAVE THE WORLD

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a fic contest, but due to word limits I had to cut out a looot. The original had a lot more foreshadowing if you will. But hey, enjoy.

This is it.

This is the end.

The wind rages around you like a thousand beasts. The sky bleeds rain and roars thunders, an echo to the furious cries in the air. The waves rise higher and higher, slamming against the earth to drag underwater those on their ways. Fire and ice cover soft soil and angry sea alike. Every single of the elements are trying to strike you down, to strike the livings down, to strike the world down.

But perhaps, I should start from the beginning.

*

Some would say that it all started when Team Rocket was first disbanded. Others would argue that it all began the day the Ecruteak tower caught fire. Some others, that the real start was back when the prophecy was first written, before the islands were even named.

They would all have good reasons to think so, but I would disagree.

A game of chess does not start until all the pieces are on the board, after all.

So it starts here. In a little forgotten town on the south east of Johto.

It starts with you.

*

In another world, in another time, someone would have come to pick up the cyndaquil and the totodile, and help Professor Elm with his research. As it is, you’ve had your marill for a very long time already, so you don’t bother visiting the lab to set off on your pokemon journey.

Someone else does, though.

The ginger-haired trainer bumps into you at the entrance of Cherrygrove city. You don’t particularly want to battle him, because he looks antsy and nervous and just this close to bolt away, but he insists. He wants to see what can his pokemon do, he says. A new trainer, you assume. You decide to indulge him.

The battle itself is short; you’ve grinded a  _lot_  on the road. But you can tell he’s going to be a fantastic trainer.

You tell him so, of course. You believe one should always say what they think about other peoples if it is something nice.

The boy accepts the compliment with mild surprise. He tells you he’s in a hurry, and he needs to go, now. You didn’t even get his name.

(Much, much later, you’ll learn how exactly did he get that chikorita. Sometimes, you wonder how different things would have been if you’ve been back to Elm’s lab.)

*

You meet a boy with a cue stick and smelling of smoke near violet city.

You’ve just won against a girl with a very annoying flying team, when you hear a loud cheer and angry grumbles.

You turn around, and- oh, you haven’t realized how focused you were on the battle.

A group of people, five or six, are here. In the middle, a young man with a tacky jacket is laughing, clutching bills in his fists. As the crowd starts to leave, he approaches you with a wide grin.

“Good job girl! Gotta say, using rollout was pretty smart. What’s your name?”

“Kotone.” did he just- “did you  _bet_  on our battle?”

“That I did.” he doesn’t even look ashamed about it. “Say, for how long have you started battling?”

Well, a month, maybe two?

The boy looks surprised. A bit because you’re sixteen and it _is_  rather old to start a pokemon journey, you guess. But he also looks kind of impressed, and that strokes your ego juuust right.

Eventually, he flashes you a wide grin. “The name’s Gold. What’s yours?”

*

A little farther down the road, after a session of intense grinding, you meet a girl setting up a camp. Normally, you would have said hi and kept walking, but dusk is near and the fire in front of her tent is really tempting. So you ask sheepishly:

“Excuse me ma’am, could I stay here for a while? I’m a little cold.”

The young woman, far from being offended, smiles gently and propose to share some food.

You’ve only intended to warm up before leaving, but you’ve never learned to keep your tongue to yourself. You start talking, and she starts answering, and it soon evolves into a really passionate chat about pokemons and travels and the places you’ve both seen. Turns out, you’ve managed to borrow the fire of a very nerdy researcher (currently studying illusionist pokemons, such as ninetales or stantlers, she tells you. Apparently, she’d heard about an Unova pokemon able to take human appearance, and it fired up her interest on the subject.)

When you go in the morning, you have a new number registered under ‘Crystal’.

*

To be fair, you don’t _intend_  to run into troubles. It just… happens. But hey, Slowpoke Well is Rocket-free now, right?

You run into the ginger again. He’s different, this time; he seems harsher, angrier, in the way he looks at you, the way he barks orders at his pokemons.

You beat him, once again. He almost _growls_  at you.

“Listen.” his voice is cold as ice. “ _I_  will destroy Team Rocket. I respect you, but  _don’t_  get in my way!”

Only then, do you realize that the anger was never directed at you.

*

You run into Crystal again between your third and fourth badge. (This will become a more common occurrence as time passes.)

She recognizes you immediately. Must be the pigtails.

“So, how have you been?” trying not to stare at her legs, but you don’t tell her that.

You chat once more, hang out for a few days -neither of you are in a hurry, and you need to grind anyway. Funny thing, you never see any of Crystal’s pokemon.

When eventually comes the time for you to leave, she slips a tm in your bag. “You’ll do more things with it than I ever will,” she says with a smile.

You don’t know if that’s true; but you sure do kick butts with that Return tm.

*

The first thing you see when you enter Ecruteak is a fistfight.

The second thing you see is  _Gold_  in the fistfight.

How he wins is beyond you; you quickly rush by his side to drag his ass to the pokemon center. His lips are bleeding and his face swollen, and yet he can’t seem to stop smiling stupidly.

“I won.”

“And now you’ll forever have a crooked nose.”

“Yes, but it’s  _badass_.”

“For fuck’s sake, Gold, will you be seri-”

“Gold?”

You turn around to see who spoke. An old man in the pokemon center, looking at the two of you with squinty eyes.

“I knew a Gold, back in my time. Had a tendency to open his mouth a little too wide too.”

Your Gold snorts. “Now that’s funny. Gold isn’t a common name though.”

The elder laughs too. So do you. ‘Gold’ must be a cursed name.

*

You start at the hand touching your shoulder.

“Hey, are you okay?” concern is not an emotion you’re used to hear in grumpy ginger’s voice. You can’t bring yourself to care.

No. No, you’re not okay.

You take a shaky breath, try to collect yourself  enough to speak- it takes you a couple tries, but you manage eventually.

“My n-noctowl…” you stutter between tears. “s-she died-ed. A tr-ainer k-killed her…”

“…I’m sorry for your loss.” You huff. You’re tired.

“Why do you even care?”

There are many things gingerhead could do. He could leave. He could yell. He could spit out some more impersonal lines that would fail to make you feel better.

Instead, he starts telling a story.

**A boy and a vulpix.**

**Happy. Friends. Fun.**

**Lack of attention.**

**Tripping. Falling, falling, falling down.**

**Heavy sound.**

**Red beneath head, red on sharp rocks.**

**There were two friends. Now there is only one.**

(“I don’t even know your name” you whisper in the hug.)

(“Silver. The name’s Silver.”)

*

There is something wrong with the lake of rage.

Heavy rain pours over you, triggered by a hundred rain dances from a hundred Gyarado. The powerful beasts scream to the sky, of scorching anger and unspeakable pain, and you suddenly feel very small in your overalls.

“Oh, thank gods.”

At least some people are okay with-

Wait a second

Gold?

And sure enough, it’s him, with his ridiculous hair and smoke smell.

“What are you doing here?” you ask, because no offense, you like the guy and all, but you would have thought he would be wasting his money on the other side of Johto rather than purposely put himself in danger.

He shakes his head and smiles at you. It is so obviously fake you want to punch his teeth out.

“Eh, I thought it would be something worse. Thankfully it isn’t.” he interrupts you before you can ask anything, the smart bastard. “There’s still something wrong here, though. Wanna investigate together?”

*

Of course the answer is Rockets.

Of fucking course.

You explore the ‘’’’’souvenir shop’’’’’ with Gold by your side. The boy doesn’t appear to have any pokemons with him, but it turns out a cue stick can do a mean amount of damages when used correctly

All in all, you clear the place with relatively few problems.

“So  _this_  is what forced the magikarps to evolve…” man, you wish Crystal was there. The nerd would have known what to do with all these buttons.

Eh, you guess it’ll stop working if you wreck it. No big de-

“Look out!” Gold screams. He throws his body over yours, slamming it against the floor. It hurts. You could have yelled at him so, so hard.

There’s a crackle of electricity.

The self-destruct blasts your hearing off and positively  _obliterate_ the control panel.

Your head is tingling. For a few second, you don’t think. You  _can’t_ think. All you can do is breathe, breathe and watch the wreck in front of you.

Slowly, you raise a hand, and lay it on the heavy body shielding you.

Gold’s shirt was burnt off by the explosion.

So was his skin.

(You scream.)

*

You stay beside Gold’s bed for three whole days. He’s still sleeping when you leave, but you know you have to move on your journey eventually. Also, the nurses are not-so-subtly urging you to  _let them do their damn job_.

So you leave, and leave your phone number behind.

*

The hospital call twice on your journey.

The first time, they ask for everything and anything you might know about Gold. It puzzles you. You already told them all the necessities, right? What more do they want?

“We can’t find anything about this boy.” they explain. “No birth certificate, no trainer license, no family.”

“By all accounts, your Gold friend does not exist.”

*

The second time they call, the conversation is much shorter, but leave you in a similar state of panic.

“Your Gold friend is gone. He has run away.”

*

The problem with Crystal, is that she has a tendency to notice when your smile isn’t quite honest.

“You know you can talk to me, right? Whatever upset you, I won’t judge.”

…

You know what? Might as well.

So, you tell her. She openly winces when you evoke the self-destruct (her hand mindlessly raises to her side; now you know where is her scar from) but otherwise listen silently.

“Yeah, I see why you’re worried. If he was conscious enough to escape a hospital though, then he probably wasn’t in a too bad shape.” Crystal is a great liar. You almost believe she thinks what she’s saying.

You sigh. “Even though, we’re talking about _Gold_  here. The guy attracts more troubles than bets money.”

Beside you, your friend takes a sharp breath. You turn your head; never has ‘pale as a ghost’ better applied to someone.

“Gold?” her voice is shaking. You’ve never seen her like this.

“He’s still alive?”

*

When you find Gold, eating berries beneath a tree, you almost punch him. Almost, because he manages to speak before your raise your fist

“I swear I can explain.”

Oh, he  _better_. Why doesn’t he exist legally? Why did he run? Why did he take the hit for you?

“How much do you know about Ecruteak legends?”

Gold,  _explain. Now_.

“Kotone. I’m supposed to be dead.”

*

**Heat on your skin**

**Keep going, keep walking**

**There are still pokemons in there**

**Keep going**

**Flames at your feet**

**They ne ed**

**you**

**Knees on the floor**

**Kee p g o ing**

**Can’t**

**Br e a th e**

*

The reunion of Crystal and Gold is full of tears and hugs. You feel a little uncomfortable standing there; this is not a scene for you to watch. But you’re also so, so happy for them. You can’t imagine what it must be like, living so long with no one you knew by your side…

Speaking of which

“Crystal,” you ask once the waterfalls have died down, “how are  _you_  alive?” The Ecruteak fire was more than a hundred years ago. These two are childhood friends. How?

Crystal smiles.

“Ever heard of the Shamouti Islands?”

*

**A song. A call for peace.**

**The pain on her side dulls.**

**Water around her ankles, her calves, her waist-**

**Her chest and shoulders and neck-**

**In her throat and in her lungs-**

**Silence.**

*

You end Team Rocket at Radio Tower with Silver’s help. Few are the grunts who escape; at long last, that threat is gone.

In the newfound peace, you become champion. Who would have known. You take some time to visit Kanto and some more to visit your friends.

Silver travels with you for a while, his goal finally complete. He is, you realize, a lot softer than he lets on. Soft hair and soft skin, soft hands and soft heart.

(You wonder if his lips are soft, too.)

Crystal and Gold are still on their own quests for knowledge and money (respectively) but you still keep in touch. Turns out, buff arms are really nice for spooning during cold nights.

(She doesn’t need to know half of your conversations with Gold are about how cute she is and how warm she makes you both feel.)

For a while, there is peace.

For a while, life is good.

Then it starts snowing. In the middle of summer.

*

“Who even hear that stupid prophecy and think ‘Imma try to catch a that birb’? I thought the last Rockets were smarter than that!!”

Gold is screaming and ranting on the top seat, right in front of Silver. Crystal looks like she agrees, but she doesn’t talk as to keep her focus on her driving. Thankfully. You don’t want to know what a helicopter crash.

(You  _still_  can’t believe she actually stole the thing. Like  _holy shit_.)

*

“So, here’s the plan.” And now we are back, to the end. Back to the beginning of this tale.

“You two” Gold points at you and Silver. “are going to get the three treasures and get them back here. Once it’s done, Lugia will thing, and everything will get back to normal. Just remember to close your ears.”

Okay. You can do that. The storm roaring around you will be an hindrance, but you have your and SIlver’s team to help you. You can do it. You will do it.

“What about you two?”

Crystal points at the birds.

“They’re going to attack you if nothing is done. So Gold and me are playing bait.”

…

…

…

exCUSE yOU?!

“No worries, we’re immortal. Probably. We’ll hopefully make it.”

No no no, these birds are being of LEGENDS. What if they kill them?!

“Well, you don’t need our help to have adorable little puppies together, do you.”

Stop joking about this! What if they die?!!

“Then it would be about damn time.“

You can’t

You don’t know how to tell them how much they mean to you. So you don’t.

Crystal starts when your lips touches her own.

“Stay safe.” you whisper. Then, louder, at Gold: “Stay alive too, you idiot. You’re one of my best friends, alright?”

*

Two treasures in and you slip into the sea.

You’re more angry than upset, frankly. You were so close- so close! just one last treasure left! But nooo, you had to overlook that  _one_  patch of ice, o _n the island of the titan of goddamn ice_ -

Through blurry water, you see Silver extend a hand to grab you before you’re too far gone.

When his palm contacts you, your vision fades to fur.

Pain shoots through your being from the sharp teeth buried in your shoulder. Powerful jaws drag you up, up, out of the water- and you’re on the snow again, in front of the ginger.

Wha-?

Blood still stains your clothes. You haven’t dreamed that. Gears turn in your head, forming a crazy, crazy idea.

You lower your gaze.

Where, by all accounts, should be the marks of heavy boots, you can only see a mess of canine pawprints.

Oh.

 _Ninetales_.

(A tale of two friends. He'd never said which one had died, did he?)

Sadly, time is running scarce: you’ll talk about this, but later, if the world is still standing.

“Guess I’m a furry then.” is all you say, before getting up and running again.

*

You did it.

Lugia’s song fill the air, a promise of forgiveness. The storm calms around you, listens to the call of the deep sea.

The smell of smoke fill your nostrils.

“Good job.” Gold’s voice is weary and tired, but ô so proud. “You saved the world.” Beside him, Crystal snickers.

You do, too.

You fall on the sand laughing your heart off, surrounded by people you love and adore.

Above you, the clouds stir away, revealing the blazing sun.

You did it.

From now on, everything is going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> The tumblr's versegm y'all. Leave a review in passing!


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